Sri Indraditya

Si Inthrathit (, ; also spelt ) was the first king of the Sukhothai Kingdom, a historical polity in what is now Thailand. He reigned from 1238 until around 1270 and is credited as the founder of the Phra Ruang dynasty, regarded as the first historical Siamese dynasty.

Born Bang Klang Hao and ruler of Mueang Bang Yang, he took Sukhothai from Khom Sabat Khlon Lamphong in 1238 in alliance with his brother-in-law Pha Mueang of Mueang Rat. Pha Mueang declined the throne and invested him as ruler instead, passing on his own Khmer-conferred title of Si Indraditya. The episode has long been read as the liberation of Sukhothai from Khmer rule and the founding of an independent Tai kingdom; more recent work treats it as a contest between local lords who both held Khmer honours.

Biography Origin Before his accession he was known as Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao , read as "the lord who rules the sky". Bang Klang Hao was born to Nang Nak , a queen consort of Candraraja, who relocated the seat from Kamphaeng Phet to Sukhothai.

The Ayutthaya Testimonies delineates his dynasty as the descendants of King Phatumsuriyawong, whom certain historians have identified with the Khmer monarch Suryavarman II. However, such an assumption appears chronologically inconsistent when juxtaposed with the genealogical account of an early Siamese royal line that ruled in the Phraek Si Racha region. The first monarch of this lineage, Visnuraja, who likewise claimed descent from King Phatumsuriyawong, By 1180 CE, the domain of Phraek Si Racha region had come under a royal house that may have been connected to Angkor and was later re-established as Chen Li Fu. During this period, Candraraja, a descendant of the Phrak Si Racha line and father of Si Inthrathit, ruled at Kamphaeng Phet before transferring the royal seat to Sukhothai. although the Ayutthaya Testimonies place it to the east of Sankhaburi. Under the direction of Si Inthrathit, however, these payments were discontinued, which had previously served as the power base of his kinsman, Pra Poa Noome Thele Seri. During his tenure there, Si Intharathit was potentially supported by Tai Yuan refugees who had fled to the region following the fall of Yonok. He also married , a Tai Lueang (ไทเลือง) princess and daughter of Sri Naw Nam Thum, the ruler of Mueang Rat , situated in either modern Lom Sak district, to the east of Mueang Bang Yang, or at the ancient in modern Uttaradit province. This Tai Lueang polity subsequently expanded its sphere of influence into Mueang Chaliang, which had been under the mixed Monic–Chinese Haripuñjaya dynasty, during the waning reign of Rajadhiraj II in the early 13th century.

Candraraja died in 1214. overthrowing the Mon ruler E Daeng Phloeng. However, the remnants of the older Monic aristocracy, led by Khom Sabat Khlon Lamphong, revolted and took the city back. Bang Klang Hao, a local chief later known as Si Intharathit, took the city from him in 1238. Si Intharathit was militarily aided by his brother-in-law, Pha Mueang, a son of Sri Naw Nam Thum. Pha Mueang was given Mueang Chaliang following this event.

Accession and regnal name

Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao was then declared king at Sukhothai, taking a regnal name of Sanskrit origin, Si Inthrathit, translated from Adityan Indra. Baker and Pasuk give the name a nearer source, as the Khmer-bestowed title of Pha Mueang, transferred to him when Pha Mueang declined the throne and invested him instead. Wyatt offers a reason for the transfer, on the premise that Angkor held the region and that Pha Mueang had sworn an oath to its ruler while Bang Klang Hao had not. By handing over the city and the title together, Pha Mueang escaped the consequences of breaking it. The same reasoning gives Wyatt a later date, about 1243 rather than 1238 or 1220, since Bang Klang Hao was the father of Ram Khamhaeng, who was reigning in the 1290s. The rank that came with the title was not peculiar to the two men. Chinese records of the same decades give kamrateng to the rulers of Chen Li Fu and Phrip Phri as well as to those of Sukhothai and Lavo, so that it marks a class of ruler rather than a singular appointment. Wyatt's wider argument turns on relics, which were believed to resist the unworthy, so that a ruler who handled one was demonstrating the merit that entitled him to rule.

Readings of 1238

The readings of 1238 differ first over who the defeated man was. The account long received, set out by Griswold and , makes Khom Sabat Khlon Lamphong the commander of a Khmer garrison, so that the campaign against him was the liberation of Sukhothai from Khmer suzerainty and the founding of an independent kingdom under a Tai dynasty. Baker and Pasuk also argue that the ethnic framing and the idea of liberation were both imported from a later era, and read the inscription as recording a victory by one local lord associated with Angkor over another holding a Khmer title; on their account Pha Mueang, who invested Bang Klang Hao, had himself received a title, a regalia sword and a princess in marriage from the ruler at Angkor. Si Inthrathit died around 1270, and was succeeded by his son Ban Mueang.

Ancestry